Partha Kar: Jealousy, rivalry, and disdain—the toxicity of specialty stereotyping

It’s all around you, especially if you venture into the world of social media: GPs against hospital specialists, hospital specialists against GPs, and specialists against one another. Everyone is eager to score points, having underlying angst about what others are doing, feeling hard done by and mistreated, or thinking that colleagues deserve more respect. And when a comment cuts too close to the bone, one person’s bit of old school stereotyping becomes another person’s disrespectful insult.

Some seem to believe that this simply reflects the tough times we live in—perhaps the frustration of reduced resources or a huge patient backlog, combined with the aftermath of dealing with the pandemic …